Alan Douglas Grunnill, (P/MX 79260) was born in Skegness, Lincolnshire on September 12th, 1915, the son of Matthew Grunnill, a fisherman, who died in 1939, and his wife Lydia, née Bowler. Before the war, Alan was working as a Stationary Engine Driver in a Pumping Station. He married Edith Mary Elvin in 1940.